Winter storm takes aim at Mid-Atlantic, Northeast

WASHINGTON (AP) — After pummeling wide swaths of the South, a winter storm dumped more than a foot of snow in parts of the Mid-Atlantic region as it marched Northeast and threatened more power outages, traffic headaches and widespread closures for millions of residents.

Baltimore awoke to 15 inches of snow, measured in Pimlico, the neighborhood that is home to the Preakness Stakes horse race. Snow blowers roared, breaking the quiet of downtown as they cleared city sidewalks in a sleeting rain. But every cleared strip created a potential hazard as it quickly iced over. Traffic was light, with some pedestrians taking to the middle of the road.

Streets were similarly deserted in Washington. As Southerners did a day earlier, many heeded warnings to stay off the roads. The sound of plastic shovels against the sidewalk rang out, and cars were capped in white. Eleven inches of snow had accumulated, with more falling. People trudged through it on foot, hopping over piles built up at intersections. Federal offices and the city’s two main airports were closed.

Luis Gray, 52, a porter, started his workday shoveling about 7 a.m. Gray said he normally takes the bus to work, but it wasn’t running, so he got a ride. He said he’d stay home after work and watch TV, then “hopefully the bus will be running again.”

In Frederick, Md., Cory Cheeks worked his pickup through a 4-foot plow pile only to find the road at the end of his hotel parking lot still blocked by snow. The Fredericksburg, Va., resident was reluctantly preparing for a day of online training, convinced he could have driven 30 miles to Rockville for a face-to-face session if his supervisors hadn’t canceled it.

“It’s a very powdery snow. It’s not very heavy at all,” Cheeks said. He added: “I could go to work right now, even in my truck. It might not be the smartest idea, but it could be done.”

At Falls Church Florist in Virginia, owner Mike Flood had his drivers out making residential deliveries despite the snow, scrambling to fulfill 1,000 Valentine’s orders over the next two days.

“It’s a God-awful thing,” he said. “We’re going to lose money, there’s no doubt about it.”

On Thursday morning, a truck driver in Ashburn, Va., working to clear snowy roads died. State police say he had pulled off the road and was standing behind his vehicle when he was hit by another dump truck. His death was one of 14 attributed to the storm as it traveled and continued to wreak havoc.

In the South, though the worst of the storm had largely passed, some parts remained a world of ice-laden trees and driveways early Thursday. Hundreds of thousands were still without power. In Atlanta, temperatures were forecast to rise during the day, but drop below freezing again overnight. Forecasters warned of the danger of black ice. Georgia Power, whose customers are concentrated in the metro Atlanta area, said about 462,000 homes and businesses have lost power at some point during the storm, though about 200,000 have had service restored. More than 5 million people live in the metro area.

In the Mid-Atlantic states and the Northeast, the heavy weather is the latest in an unending drumbeat of storms that have depleted salt supplies and caused schools to run out of snow days.

In New York, Emilay Chung was busy digging her car out. “I have to get to my patients,” said Chung, a nurse who lives in Manhattan but works at a hospital in the Hudson Valley.

John Memedi cleared snow from the steps of one of three apartment buildings he manages as the superintendent. He said he doesn’t mind the snow: “It’s part of my job. What are you going to do?”

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By Jessica Gresko. Associated Press writers Sarah Brumfield in Washington; Matthew Barakat in Falls Church, Va.; and David Dishneau in Frederick, Md.; contributed to this report.